Sweet and savoury recipes que vale la pena

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Raspberry and Lemon Macarons

Over the past few years, a small obsession of mine has been learning to make these French cookies at home. Me and Fabio used to buy a few of these from the French bakery on Granville island for special occasions, and as much as I loved them, I couldn’t justify the cost for anything more frequent.

Macarons are made of simple ingredients – egg whites, almonds, powdered and granulated sugar – yet it is the process and technique of combining these ingredients that transforms them into something worthy of their premium price as a macaron. An ideal macaron will have a smooth shiny shell, an even ruffled ‘foot’ a chewy meringue texture and will sandwich a smooth flavorful ganache or buttercream.

My first attempt at making these at home, I quickly learned why these cookies are renowned for their complexity and command their premium price – my first batch was a disaster, the meringue completely deflated while baking and I was left with a sheet of meringues that were flat, misshapen, and full of holes. Fortunately, I could only improve from there, and since that sad day in the kitchen, I certainly have.

Most recently, I have been using the following recipe from Bouchon Bakery. It is incredibly precise (e.g. 212 grams of almond flour) but it works so well, I highly recommend it to anyone taking on their first batch of Macarons. You do need a scale, stand mixer, and candy thermometer – but provided you follow these steps, plan ahead, and take your time, you can make these yourself as well. Enjoy!

Make a well in the almond/sugar mixture, leaving a layer of the mixture at the bottom of the well and pour in the 82 grams of egg whites, mix everything together with a spatula / Hacer un hueco en la mezcla de azúcar y almendra, dejando una capa de la mezcla en la parte inferior del hueco y colocar los 82 gramos de claras de huevo, mezclar todo junto con una espátula.

Place the 90 grams of egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment / Colocar los 90 gramos de claras de huevo en el recipiente de una batidora de pie con el instrumento o gancho para batir.

Begin by folding one third of the meringue into the almond flour – sugar – egg white mixture. Continue adding more and more whites, using a spatula to fold the ingredients together. Each time I’ve made these I’ve needed to use all the meringue, but its important to know what you are looking for in a consistency of the batter. Ideally as you fold the mixture over itself, the ribbon will slowly sink into the batter, it shouldn’t be too firm nor too loose (but on the firm side is preferred to a batter that dissolves into itself too quickly) / Comenzar agregando y envolviéndo gentilmente un tercio del merengue en la mezcla de hariana y azúcar y clara de huevo. Usa una espátula. Continúa poco a poco agregando más merengue a la mezcla. El resultado no debe ser ni tan firme y ni tan blando.

At this point you can separate the batter into bowls and color as you wish. If you are making raspberry and lemon macarons then split the batter in two and color with food coloring, mixing well to incorporate the color consistently / Puedes separar en diferentes recipientes la mezcla y colocar los colores que quieras.

Transfer the macaron mixture to a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch tip attached. Pipe the mix onto the parchment filling up one of the pre-drawn circles. As the mixture fills out to the edges of the circle, lift up and flick the tip away from the macaron. If this creates a bump on the top, it can be smoothed down gently with a wet fingertip / Transferir la mezcla a una manga pastelera y comezar a hacer los macarons. Si se forma una bolita en la parte superior no te preocupes ya que con un dedo mojado con agua puedes gentilmente presionar hasta que esté plano y suave.

Continue filling all the circles on the prepared parchment until the batter is all used up / Rellenar todos los círculos hasta acabar la mezcla.

Tap the sheet pan on the counter a couple of times to help smooth the batter and release any air bubbles should there be any / Golpear la bandeja en una superficie plana, esto ayudará a que la mezcla de macarons saque algunas burbujas de aire.

The tops will be smooth and set, and the bottoms should have the ruffled ‘foot’ but should not be browned at all / La parte superior debe estar suave y lista y la parte inferior debe como lo ves en las fotos y no dorado para nada.

Buttercream / Crema de mantequilla

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk / Colocar las claras de huevos en un recipiente de una batidora de pie con el instrumento o gancho para batir.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and add the softened butter, a few pieces at a time until it is all incorporated / Reducir la velocidad a medio y colocar poco a poco los pedazos de mantequilla (en temperatura ambiente) hasta que todo esté incorporado.

At this point the buttercream may be refrigerated for another day or separated and flavored with either Raspberry Coulis (as we were making two flavors we halved the coulis recipe and added it to half of the buttercream) or Lemon curd – (we used 4 heaping tablespoons to flavor half of this recipe of buttercream) / Pudes refrigerar la crema de matequilla o separala para poner el coulis de frambuesa (ver link) o crema de limón (ver link)

For the lemon macarons, we tried what Bouchon Bakery call ‘bull’s-eyes’ by piping a ring of lemon flavored butter cream around the edge and filling with a small amount of curd before covering with the other half. It creates a concentrated center of tart lemon flavor that helps balance out the sweetness of the cookie. / Para los macarons de limón nosotros utilizamos una receta de la panadería Bouchon, agregamos un poco de crema de limón en el centro y alrededor la crema de mantequilla y luego cubres el macaron con su otra mitad.

Store the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge. The macarons may also be frozen for up to one month. Thaw the frozen macarons while sealed in the same container to prevent any condensation from forming on the cookies. The macarons will thaw within half an hour at room temperature / Guardar los macarones en un recipiente en el refrigerador. Los macarones pueden ser congelados hasta por un mes. Para descongelarlos dejar en el mismo recipiente para prevenir que los macarones se tornen húmedos.